Wrapping up the first half of the semester...

The blogs you all have written have opened up quite a space for discussing race and privilege in America. I would like for you all to spend some time before Monday's class interacting with this PBS website that explores race and privilege, thinking through your assumptions, beliefs, and ideas.

Also, many have asked about this study I mentioned about race and privilege regarding African American males and job opportunities. A link to this study and an interview with the researcher can be found here.

As we are getting into research practices and methodologies, one strategy for finding academic sources on your topic is to consult a bibliography. I am giving you a link here to explore scholarly research conducted by experts in their fields (multiple disciplines) that supports the idea of race and privilege. There is some interesting reading here that provides further support and context for the PBS website. Remember that the PBS site is meant for the lay public. These sources are written for researchers and reflect current scholarship in their respective fields.

Your perusal of the interview and the bibliography is optional; however, interacting with the PBS site is required.

For next week's (3.2.08 through 3.8.08) blog post, continue your virtual discussion of race, power, and privilege, enriching it with what you find interesting/surprising/significant/troubling about the PBS site. Remember to post a reflective, dialogic comment on someone else's blog about these concepts as well. Over break I will assess the quality of your blogs and responses as well as assign them a grade based on their quality at this point in the semester. If you need to catch up, do so before Monday, March 3.

Read Chapter 2in The Bedford Researcher and continue exploring topics/ issues related to your subculture by engaging in the following: discussing your topic with others, observing, reviewing sources, browsing newsstands and bookstores (a good excuse to hit up Barnes & Noble) and web searching. At this point you are trying to identify conversations about issues so that you can select and narrow your focus to create a research question.

Read Chapter 3 in the Bedford Researcher. In your daybook, complete the green box on page 39 that helps you develop and define your research question. Create three or four effective research questions that focus on a specific issue in your service-learning community, reflect your writing situation, and are narrow enough to allow you to collect information in time to meet your deadline. Write these top three or four questions in your daybook.

Also, I will evaluate and grade your research prospectus, which is due before you leave for break, no later than 1:00pm on Friday, March 7, 2008. You must submit a hard copy either in-class on Wednesday or slip a copy under my office door. Unless your circumstances are extreme and you have a University Excused Absence, no digital submissions will be accepted. Chapter 3 in the Bedford Reseacher cover the prospectus. Requirements are detailed on the MGRP Guidelines Page and a student example can be accessed here.

As for your fieldworking...

• Continue observing and recording fieldnotes at your service-learning site.
• Start considering or select the objectyou will focus on as an artifact from the site.

Service-learning Project Contracts and revisions are also due before break.